This section contains a summary of Babylon 5's story arc (the 5-year
plotline) up to, but not including,
"The Long Road."
Note that this is chock full of spoilers!

Summary by Katrina Glerum (kat@gol.com)

Thirteen years ago, humanity teetered on the brink of extermination after a
misunderstanding mobilized the entire Minbari civilization on a mission
of annihilation. The Babylon Project was Earth's attempt to prevent future
interstellar war by promoting interracial understanding. It failed utterly.
A galactic war of epic proportions engulfed Babylon 5 only five years after
its completion. In the face of overwhelming darkness and chaos, the people
of B5 found the courage to make a stand against madness and despair. Yet
the price was enormous. They lost their homes, their loved ones, their
careers -- even their lives.

The Shadows

The Great War is the handiwork of the Shadows. An ancient, terrifyingly
powerful race, the Shadows seed the galaxy with chaos like cosmic picadors,
promoting evolutionary advancement through competition and destruction. A
thousand years ago they were beaten back to the galactic rim by an alliance
which included relatively young civilizations like the Minbari, and a number
of extremely powerful older races known collectively as the First Ones. Of
these, all but the Vorlons have passed beyond confines of the
galaxy -- presumably forever. The Shadows have infiltrated several
governments, preferring secrecy because in the open their organic vessels
have one crucial vulnerability: they can be disabled by telepaths. Although
forced on the defensive when Captain Sheridan destroyed the biggest city on
their home world of Z'ha'dum, the Shadows have no intention of giving up
their goals easily, whatever those goals might ultimately be.

The Vorlons and Ambassador Kosh

The Shadows' greatest remaining enemies are the Vorlons. Enigmatic, secretive
and extremely powerful, the Vorlons have also manipulated many civilizations
for their own mysterious ends. Their sole acknowledged representative,
Ambassador Kosh Naranek, glided the corridors of B5 for years before anyone saw
him outside his bulky encounter suit. When he finally revealed himself, he
appeared as a glorious being of light and lore, of the same species as any
who saw him.

Only one individual is known to have ever visited the Vorlon homeworld, the
human telepath Lyta Alexander. When she returned to act as aide and
"courier" for Ambassador Kosh, she had obviously been altered. Besides
Lyta, Kosh took an interest in Delenn, to teach, test and trust her. But his
most curious relationship was reserved for Captain Sheridan, who he pushed
and taught and chastised. Finally when Sheridan demanded that the Vorlons
take part in the war they were commanding him to fight for them, Kosh
acquiesced at the cost of his own life -- or at least most of it. Even as the
Shadows destroyed the Ambassador in retribution, a small piece of Kosh's
consciousness slipped into the Captain to guide his path in the future.

The replacement Ambassador, also known as "Kosh," is more remote and more
clearly working toward ends that include no one but Vorlons.

The Centauri and Ambassador Londo Mollari

In the declining years of the great Centauri Empire, the Shadows' human
puppet, Mr. Morden, approached a debauched, washed-up, old Centauri patriot,
Londo Mollari, and offered him the chance for his people to regain their
lost might and glory. In exchange Morden asked... well, nothing, at first.
Londo took the bait and presided over the reconquest of Narn. The star of
House Mollari soared, but Londo felt that circumstances were flying out of
control. The machinations of his ally-turned-enemy Lord Refa, the urgings
of Mr. Morden's "associates" to wage excessive and pointless border wars,
the rudderless court at home, and his own desire to serve his people, all
pushed the Ambassador into a newly decisive role. Yet, tragically it
appears that it will be his destiny to lead his people into ruin and desolation.

The Narn and Ambassador G'Kar

When G'Kar first came to Babylon 5, he was a hero who had spent his entire
life fighting the Centauri. His hatred and fury knew no limits, and thus he
ironically provided the perfect target for Londo's temptation by the
Shadows. When his world was defeated, G'Kar was forced to beg sanctuary
from Babylon 5 and there he became the leader of the Narn resistance in
exile. G'Kar discovered the Shadows' return long before it became widely
known, but his warnings fell on seemingly deaf ears. Eventually he learned
the terrible truth: that Londo had masterminded the Shadow
destruction of his people, and that the Minbari and the Army of Light had
known this, and permitted it to happen. In the very instant of such
revelations he experienced a Vorlon-inspired epiphany: "Some must be
sacrificed if all are to be saved." He came to understand as well that
somehow the humans would be the key to the salvation of his people.

Earth

While reports from "back home" had never been wildly encouraging, including
the crushing of the Mars Independence movement and the Gestapo-like
Nightwatch division of the Ministry of Peace, the B5 command staff were
still appalled when they stumbled across evidence that President Clark had
had his predecessor assassinated. When this news leaked to the press, Clark
disbanded the government and declared martial law. Even as his loyal forces
hunted down rebellious ships and bombed civilian targets, Mars, Io and
Babylon 5 declared their independence. With Minbari assistance, B5 held off
a massive Earth assault. This success left the station floating in uneasy
limbo, dependent on the goodwill and self-interest of worlds who might want
to use it for trade and peace negotiations.

Psi Corps

Believing themselves to be the next evolutionary step beyond "normals,"
members of Psi Corps have consistently shown disregard for the laws intended
to regulate their activities, along with disregard for the rights and
well-being of other telepaths. They hound rogue teeps to the ends of the
galaxy; they plant personality time bombs in their members as they did to
Talia Winters; they develop and distribute dangerous psi-enhancing drugs
like "dust;" and some within the Corps are even willing to hand over
rebellious telepaths to the Shadows. They manipulate, coerce, conspire and
league with the devil in pursuit of one goal -- control. However, even within
an organization so guarded, there are signs of dissent and factionalization.
In his anger over the ill-treatment of his lover, one of the Psi Corps'
strongest telepaths, Alfred Bester, has promised to lend his aid to the
station in their fight against the Shadows.

The Minbari and Ambassador Delenn

As prophesied by Valen, the Great War has brought the Minbari to the close
of an age, ending a thousand years of peaceful rule by the Grey Council.
Council member for the religious caste, Delenn was among the few who
understood and believed the many prophecies about this time. Thus she was
one of the few prepared for the terrific consequences and sacrifices
required by those prophecies as one by one they came true.

The first was over a decade ago, in the terrible hour when the Grey Council
war cruiser poised over Earth in a final lull before exacting ultimate
vengeance for their leader Dukhat's death. A lone pilot, Jeffrey Sinclair,
was captured and interrogated. To their horror, the Council discovered that
he carried the soul of their greatest leader, Valen, and determined that
Minbari souls were being reborn in the bodies of humans. They immediately
and without explanation ordered their forces to surrender, to the outrage of
the warrior caste.

The ancients said that the two halves of the Minbari soul must join to
overcome their greatest challenge. They also spoke of a great leader.
Believing that she was this person, Delenn underwent a metamorphosis that
left her half human -- and ostracized by both races. She rose to the challenge,
however, and when the Grey Council, which had been established to guard
against the Shadows' return, balked when the circumstances of that return
announced themselves as interspecies border conflicts, Delenn broke the
Council and led the worker and religious castes into battle. This threw
the tightly knit society into a turmoil, with Delenn in the unrelished
middle of it all.

The Great War and the Army of Light

The Great War never ends, it just stops for awhile. It is the war that
Commander Sinclair/Valen and Babylon 4 traveled backward through time to
win a thousand years ago. It is the Great War prophesied to play out again
in another thousand years.

Bloody though it was, the Minbari War certainly hadn't prepared the
successful, patriotic, young Captain Sheridan for the task of commanding
Babylon 5, much less the hardships which followed. Trying to steer a path
between the political, the practical, and the ethical would have been
impossible if not for his able and like-minded command staff: Ivanova,
Garibaldi and Franklin. Initially these four came together to fight the
darkness growing within Earth Gov, but soon they found that this evil was
only a piece of the terrifying storm brewing, and they were too few alone.

The first to join the Army of Light were the crack Minbari-human battalion
known as Rangers. Then, through persuasion, coercion and a show of arms,
Sheridan was able to hammer together a fragile Alliance that included many
of the Non-Aligned Worlds, and Delenn's two thirds of the Minbari. He also
found some unexpected allies, including Draal, the sentient heart of the
great machine below the station on Epsilon 3; the ancient, First One Walkers
of Sigma 957; remnants of the Earth Force resistance against President
Clark; and a promise from Psi Cop Mr. Bester.

When the Alliance scored a major victory over the Shadows at last, the enemy
grew afraid. They sent Anna Sheridan, who they had captured with Mr. Morden
from the Icarus expedition, to summon John to Z'ha'dum. Even though Kosh
had warned him that he would die, and he knew it was a trap, Sheridan went
there anyway and destroyed their greatest city before plunging to certain
death in an immense chasm.

More Recently...

G'Kar set out in search of Garibaldi, who was taken by a Shadow ship during
Sheridan's confrontation with the Shadows, in
"The Hour of the Wolf."
Londo took up a position in the royal court, but soon discovered that the
Emperor was insane and had made a deal with the Shadows in the belief that
they would elevate him to godhood. A rescue mission was mounted to Z'ha'dum,
but Sheridan was nowhere to be found. Somehow, though, he survived, and found
himself at the bottom of the chasm accompanied by an enigmatic alien.

The alien, Lorien, claimed to be the first of the First Ones, the reason the
Shadows always return to Z'ha'dum. G'Kar never found out
"Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi,"
and was captured by the Centauri. Londo promised G'Kar the freedom of the
Narn homeworld if G'Kar would help him unseat Emperor Cartagia. Meanwhile,
back on Babylon 5, the League of Non-aligned Worlds splintered thanks to
Sheridan's disappearance, and Delenn summoned the Rangers to organize a
final strike on Z'ha'dum.

Garibaldi was recovered from a mysterious ship in
"The Summoning,"
while Ivanova and Marcus set out in search of more First Ones. What they
found instead was a vast Vorlon fleet on a mission to destroy any world
touched by the Shadows. Lyta turned against Kosh. Sheridan returned with
Lorien, just in time to thwart an attempt by the frightened Non-Aligned
Worlds to break up the Army of Light.

In
"Falling Toward Apotheosis,"
Londo learned of Cartagia's plan to allow the Vorlons to destroy Centauri
Prime, thus propelling him to godhood in a glorious explosion of fire.
Londo convinced Cartagia to first go to Narn and try G'Kar for crimes
against the Centauri; even so, Cartagia had a guard pluck out G'Kar's left
eye in a moment of pique. As the Vorlon fleet proceeded with its plan,
destroying world after world and sending refugees streaming to Babylon 5,
Sheridan and Lorien battled and killed Kosh. Delenn learned that Sheridan's
resurrection is only temporary; he has no more than twenty years left.

During
"The Long Night"
before the Army of Light's planned confrontation with the Vorlons, the
Shadows unleashed their own planet-killer, prompting Sheridan to lure them
into direct battle with the Vorlons to settle the conflict once and for all.
With G'Kar's help, Londo and Vir assassinated Cartagia; the royal court,
most unaware of the plot, elected Londo prime minister to quickly rid Centauri
Prime of Shadow influence and stave off the impending Vorlon attack. Londo
ordered the withdrawal of Centauri forces from Narn.

The Shadow War came to an abrupt end in
"Into the Fire."
Confronted by a united fleet of the younger races they were supposed to be
shepherding, the Vorlons and Shadows attempted
to force Sheridan to choose one of the two approaches to growth
and evolution. Sheridan rejected both choices; the younger races didn't need
shepherding any more, and would never again act as pawns. The Shadows and
Vorlons, convinced that their battle for philosophical dominance could no
longer continue, departed for the Rim, accompanied by Lorien and the last of
the remaining First Ones. Londo, meanwhile, destroyed the Shadow base on
Centauri Prime, earning a promise of retribution by the Shadows' allies.

Postwar euphoria was brief; with the departure of the Shadows, President
Clark turned his attention back to Babylon 5, launching a propaganda war
in lieu of a futile direct attack. In
"Epiphanies,"
Sheridan was alerted to the first phase of the war by psi-cop Bester, who
demanded to be taken to Z'ha'dum in exchange for the information. The crew
arrived in time to see the Shadows' dark servants escaping with unknown
quantities of Shadow technology, just before the sudden self-destruction of the
entire planet. Their first target: Centauri Prime, where they planted a Keeper
("War Without End, part 2")
on the body of the newly-appointed Regent. After receiving a mysterious
coded message, Garibaldi resigned his post.

Delenn returned to Minbar to begin
"Atonement"
for her cross-species relationship with Sheridan, strictly forbidden by
traditional Minbari beliefs about racial purity. Under the influence of a
mind probe, the first days of her membership on the Grey Council came to
light, including the fact that she ordered the start of the Earth-Minbari
War. More importantly, she discovered that she was a direct descendant of
Valen, and thus wasn't a racially pure Minbari to begin with -- and neither
were untold millions of other Minbari descended from Sinclair's children of a
thousand years ago.

Garibaldi, now operating as a private investigator, grew tired of the cult
of personality surrounding Sheridan. In
"Racing Mars,"
he agreed to help a group that claimed to be concerned about Sheridan's
personality becoming a danger to the cause.

Tensions on Minbar continued to rise. In
"Lines of Communication,"
the warrior caste began purging major cities of religious and worker caste
members. In response, Delenn was asked to enlist the aid of the Drakh, one
of the Shadow's servant races, now at large with looted Shadow technology.
No bargain was struck.

Garibaldi was offered a job on Mars, and Sheridan devised a plan to deploy the
White Star fleet as a police force to protect border areas from raiders and
the Drakh, in
"Conflicts of Interest."
Garibaldi's new employer, a medical-research magnate, came into possession of
a substance that allegedly cures a deadly genetic flaw in telepaths.

Delenn and a high-ranking warrior caste member, Neroon, tricked the warrior
caste's leader into bringing the civil war to an end in
"Moments of Transition,"
forming a new Grey Council under the majority control of the worker caste.
Meanwhile, Bester struck a deal with Lyta, giving her the appearance of
rejoining the Psi Corps. Earth forces attacked a convoy of unarmed refugee
ships, causing Sheridan to declare war.

Sheridan's forces liberated the colony at Proxima 3 in
"No Surrender, No Retreat."
Disgusted with Sheridan's guns-blazing approach to unseating Clark,
Garibaldi left the station to meet with his new employer on Mars.

Dr. Franklin benefited from
"The Exercise of Vital Powers,"
in this case Lyta's ability to reawaken the frozen Shadow-implanted telepaths.
Garibaldi arrived on Mars, where Mr. Edgars, his new employer, convinced him
to try to lure Sheridan into a trap.

Garibaldi's trap was sprung, and Sheridan was captured by Clark's forces in
"The Face of the Enemy."
Edgars revealed his plan: to enslave telepaths by infecting them with a
lethal virus. Unfortunately, Bester scanned Garibaldi -- who had all along
been acting as Bester's agent, personality altered so he'd be more
susceptible to betraying Sheridan -- and discovered the plot. Edgars was
promptly murdered and the virus stolen.

Continuing the fight in Sheridan's absence, Ivanova was mortally wounded in
"Between the Darkness and the Light."
Shortly thereafter, Sheridan was rescued by Franklin, Lyta, and Garibaldi,
who submitted to a scan by Lyta to prove he was manipulated by Bester.
The League of Non-Aligned Worlds, at the urging of G'Kar and Londo, committed
forces to aid Sheridan's fleet.

Using the implanted telepaths' ability to merge with computer systems,
Sheridan's forces defeated the defenses of Mars and Earth with few casualties in
"Endgame."
Clark committed suicide rather than face capture. Marcus used the alien
healing device
("The Quality of Mercy")
to sacrifice himself to save Ivanova's life.